Media

While I'm certain that she was there to promote the fact that she is the newest face of the Clean and Clear #SeetheRealMe Campaign, some other things came up as well.

First of all, there is the response the campaign has generated

When I first saw Jazz Jennings, nothing struck me as peculiar. She looked like any other vibrant, charming and charismatic teenage girl. I assumed that her age and on-camera presence made her an ideal candidate as a representative of Clean and Clear. She fit the mold of what you see for something targeted at younger audiences. Teenagers get pimples and she’s a teenager – it works.

It’s not until it’s mentioned that Jennings is transgender that people start to stir, debate and wonder why a brand of face wash tries to “force” our youth to accept something so perverse. The backlash from parents is horrifying. I was used to seeing opponents attack adults on the Internet, but Jennings is a child. “Concerned parents” were saying that we should burn “it” at the stake, that she is wearing dresses to get attention or that she should just admit that she is a homosexual boy. Teaching children that saying these hurtful things about others will influence them far more than a commercial will.

Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls were consistently insisting on using transgender people as the butt of their humor...and CBS dramas used transgender characters only for sensationalism and exploitation.

Historically CBS was the first station to positively portray transgender people (The Education of Max Bickford, Picket Fences, Cold Case, Without a Trace). But then NCIS referred to a transgender woman as a "he/she" and joked about Tony kissing "him" and CSI went bonkers on the subject of transpeople. It's been downhill from there.

Using clips from CBS shows, GLAAD's Nick Adams tried to show how the transgender community was being represented by CBS.

Using several clips from recent CBS shows, he pointed out how anti-trans images in the media contribute to a culture that does not treat transgender people equally.

CBS has failed three of the last five Network Responsibility Index reports produced by GLAAD.

Apparently Tassler and CBS News have decided to display that they have received the message.

In the past Ablow has stated his position that "he is not convinced that transgender identity is real.

Because people are “not settled on the fact that when somebody says, declares, ‘I am of this gender,’ but they are anatomically and genetically of another gender,” Ablow said the gym should have been more forgiving to the woman who complained. “They need to account for that and not judge the folks who feel exposed.

--Ablow

Aidala said that from a legal standpoint, under Michigan law, the gym had every right to act as they did in revoking the disruptive woman's membership.

[W]e get tongue-tied, we can’t say the obvious, which is this is craziness! You’re kicking out members because they feel uncomfortable that someone who seems to be a man to them, and is genetically, is looking at them naked?!”

“We are being bullied into accepting things that are untrue to our core feelings."